Riding on Claudio Bravo’s heroics, Chile reached the Confederations Cup final by beating Portugal on penalties.

The Manchester City goalie denied Ricardo Quaresma, Joao Moutinho and Nani to send his team into Sunday’s final after the game ended 0-0 after extra time. On the other hand, Arturo Vidal, Charles Aranguiz and Alexis Sanchez all scored for Chile to set a date with the winner of Germany against Mexico.

Both the teams began the proceeding at Kazan on a bright note, with Chile going close after six minutes through Eduardo Vargas. The attacked had latched onto a pass from Arsenal star Alexis Sanchez but Rui Patricio did well to deny him. Portugal responded soon with their captain Cristiano Ronaldo teeing up Andre Silva at the back post only to see Bravo denying them the lead.

But the bright start to the match soon turned dull and the only other opportunity before the break fell to Aranguiz who wasted the opportunity with a wild slice on the half-volley. Neither of the sides was willing to take the attack to the opposition in the second half but Chile was looking the likely team to go ahead.

The regulation time ended with the scorecard reading nil-nil but Chile upped their ante in extra-time. The first chance of fell to Sanchez but his header narrowly missed the target. The Copa America champions were then denied by woodwork twice in quick succession when a thunderous shot from Vidal bounced back off the right-hand post before Rodriguez’s improvised effort suffered the same fate.

Chelsea continued to press but failed to break the deadlock before Bravo’s heroics sent them to the final.

An avid sports lover, i always wanted to pursue a career in football. But just like the millions out there i did not put in the hard work needed to achieve my dream and now i have become a fan instead of the player. Anyway, writing for sports has kept me closer to this field. One more thing, yours sincerely is a die-hard Liverpool fan.
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